Controlled Liquid Hydrogen Storage: The backbone of decentralized energy

pH7 Technologies Inc. a Vancouver-based critical metals processing company, is pleased to announce up to $5 million in funding support from Natural Resources Canada through the Energy Innovation Program's Mining Decarbonization Demonstration Call for Proposals to evaluate a first-of-its-kind copper production technology using samples from [Trekor Metals’] Gibraltar Mine in British Columbia. The project will validate pH7's proprietary closed-loop copper extraction process, which converts low-grade sulfide ore directly into 99.9% pure copper cathodes on-site while generating green hydrogen as a valuable by-product. If successful, the project will generate the operational, environmental and economic data needed to support potential future scale-up and deployment across the Canadian mining sector.

The technology represents a fundamentally different approach to copper production. By providing an additional pathway for producing high-purity copper cathodes directly at a mine site, pH7's process has the potential to significantly improve resource efficiency while strengthening domestic critical mineral supply chains. 

"As demand for copper continues to grow due to electrification, renewable energy infrastructure, artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing, the industry faces the challenge of increasing supply while reducing environmental impacts," said Mohammad Doostmohammadi, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of pH7 Technologies.

"The support from Natural Resources Canada validates the importance of developing innovative Canadian technologies that can strengthen critical mineral supply chains, improve resource efficiency and help decarbonize the mining industry."

The Honourable Tim Hodgson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources 

“Canada has the resources, talent and innovative technologies needed to be a global leader in critical minerals. Projects like this help strengthen domestic supply chains, improve the competitiveness of our mining sector and support economic growth while advancing more efficient and sustainable resource development.”

Adil Cheema, Director, Process Engineering, Trekor Metals

"Meeting future copper demand will require both new sources of supply and innovative approaches to improve the efficiency of existing operations. We are pleased to support the evaluation of emerging technologies such as pH7’s process and look forward to the insights generated through this program"

The project will advance through engineering and technology development phases, generating the technical data required to evaluate future demonstration opportunities and de-risk future commercial deployment. The NRCan funding is intended to support future construction and demonstration phases, pending technical and commercial evaluation from both sides.

By enabling the production of high-purity copper cathodes directly at mine sites, pH7's technology has the potential to increase recovery from low-grade resources, extend the value of existing mining assets and support Canada's leadership in sustainable critical minerals production.

pH7 Technologies | https://ph7technologies.com/

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) applauded the U.S. House of Representatives for passing Securing Community Upgrades for a Resilient Grid (SECURE Grid) Act, bipartisan legislation that would strengthen planning for America's electric distribution system against cyber, physical, and weather-related threats. NEMA commends U.S. Reps. Bob Latta (R-OH) and Doris Matsui (D-CA) for their leadership advancing the bill and urges the Senate to swiftly pass its companion measure.  

“The power grid is the backbone of the U.S. economy, and modernizing our nation’s distribution infrastructure is essential to delivering the reliable power that supports economic growth and meets rising electricity demand,” said NEMA President and CEO Debra Phillips. “The SECURE Grid Act takes a comprehensive approach to ensuring states adopt durable distribution planning that reflects today’s evolving cyber, physical, and supply chain risks. By strengthening that proactive planning, this bipartisan bill will accelerate deployment of grid-hardening equipment, distributed energy resources behind-the-meter technologies, and the other innovations needed to modernize and protect America’s electric distribution system.”  

The legislation would help states identify vulnerabilities and develop strategies to address emerging threats before they disrupt communities, businesses, and critical services. 

NEMA has long supported policies that accelerate grid modernization and strengthen resilience while bolstering domestic manufacturing of critical electrical equipment that powers the nation.  

National Electrical Manufacturers Association | makeitelectric.org

Schneider Electric, a global energy technology leader, announced the expansion of EcoCare, a next-generation service plan that combines AI-powered condition-based maintenance and 24/7 remote monitoring to now include 3-Phase UPS. It is designed to transform how organizations manage their critical assets and systems, applying energy intelligence to improve uptime, enhance safety, and streamline operational efficiency.

Operations are under increasing pressure as downtime costs range from $10,000 to $10 million per hour(1) and U.S. energy demand surges, with Schneider Electric's Research Institute projecting the country must add 1,000–2,000 TWh of electricity per decade to meet demand from AI, electrification, and industrial growth.

Meanwhile, a growing engineering skills gap—estimated to result in $8.5 trillion in unrealized global revenue by 2030—makes it more challenging to maintain safe, reliable, and compliant operations. Fragmented asset management and constrained investment further limit organizations' ability to prevent downtime, optimize maintenance, and extend asset lifespan.

In data center environments, current maintenance approaches are increasingly under strain, with power the leading cause of impactful outages—most often from UPS issues—and the majority of incidents still involving human error.

At the same time, 98% of sites face electrical safety risks, while 71% lack the spare parts needed to ensure business continuity. Further compounding the issue, 89% of organizations do not follow manufacturer-recommended maintenance practices.

"We're making invisible problems visible through digital connectivity—using data and AI to identify degradation and potential failures before they happen," said Bryan Stevens, Senior Vice President, US Services, Schneider Electric. "We're enabling organizations to transform operations in an unprecedented way - using predictive insights to reduce interventions and cost, improve risk management, and ultimately protect uptime in an increasingly complex environment."

Schneider Electric is the energy technology partner for the organizations that run critical operations, embedding energy intelligence across its services portfolio to turn real-time data into foresight, not hindsight.

Staying ahead of critical failures with 24/7 remote monitoring
EcoCare enables a shift to proactive, condition-based maintenance, starting with connected assets and remote monitoring. Whether through native connectivity or retrofitting with sensors and network management cards, critical operational and environmental data, such as temperature, wear, aging, partial discharge and battery status is continuously captured and analyzed.

Data flows securely into EcoStruxure IT architecture, which follows data protection best practices, including IEC 62443-4-1 standards and CREST-accredited penetration testing.

Schneider Electric's experts at the Connected Services Hub monitor UPS assets at the component level 24/7, using predictive analytics to detect early signs of failure and take proactive, AI-enabled action—remote troubleshooting or targeted on-site intervention—to mitigate downtime risks.

This results in shorter time‑to‑repair, improved first-time-fix rate, and less operational load so teams can concentrate on added value tasks.

Across industries, our customers have seen the value of 3-Phase UPS remote monitoring:

• Up to 70% less electrical failure risk and unplanned downtime on UPS.(2)
• 66% fewer break-fix interventions (3) and 5 critical failures prevented on UPS per year. (4)

Optimizing maintenance calendar through AI-powered condition-based maintenance
EcoCare shifts operations teams from reactive firefighting to proactive insight, combining AI models – trained on the world's largest installed base of electrical assets and continuously refined by over 300 data scientists – with the expertise of more than 6,000 Schneider Electric experts.

With AI-powered condition-based maintenance, key data points are analyzed, such as wear, aging and temperature, and maintenance history to determine the optimized date for the next maintenance intervention. This adapts maintenance schedules to the real condition of assets, avoiding both unnecessary maintenance and the cost of intervening too late.

 Condition-based maintenance can help:

• Reduce by up to 50% intrusive maintenance visits and planned downtime on UPS (from 1 to up to 2 years)(5)
• Achieve 20% OpEx savings compared with traditional calendar-based maintenance (6)

At Compass Datacenters, a fleet of 78 EcoStruxure™ modular data centers achieved up to 20% OpEx savings over a two-year period by shifting from calendar-based to condition-based maintenance.

Unlocking exclusive benefits
EcoCare also provides exclusive, faster support for organizations' daily operations with:

• Break-fix emergency intervention: Corrective action, remote or on-site, backed by a Service Level Agreement (SLA)
• Advanced technical support: Access the right certified expert remotely or on-site, to troubleshoot, advise, and quickly resolve issues
• Customer Success Plan: A trusted advisor and a tailored success plan to improve performance
• Other benefits: Optimize budgets and upskill teams with training, including immersive experience, spare parts and on-site intervention at discount rates

A true partnership on asset lifecycle management
Schneider Electric delivers a unified approach to Asset Lifecycle Management Services, supporting customers across plants, data centers, buildings, and grids to operate critical energy systems reliably, safely, and efficiently. The 3-Phase UPS expansion builds on the recent launch of EcoCare for BMS and joins a growing EcoCare portfolio—spanning electrical distribution, single- and three-phase UPS, modular data centers, and building management systems—that reinforces Schneider Electric's leadership in energy technology and services.

EcoCare services are complemented by:

• EcoConsult: Consulting services to design Asset Performance Management strategy and optimize systems
• EcoFit: Digital-ready modernization, circularity, repairability, take back

Related resources:

• EcoCare for 3-Phase UPS

Schneider Electric | www.se.com

Sanalife Energy was chosen as part of a larger consortium to commission California's first commercial truck-charging research hub in Carson. Sanalife's E360 energy management system serves as the real-time monitoring engine for the project's electrification and data collection. The Carson site is one of two pilot demonstrations under the California Energy Commission grant GFO-20-306, part of the Electric Truck Research and Utilization Center (eTRUC) initiative, which researches high-power charging for Class 7 and 8 zero-emission freight trucks.

California is electrifying its medium- and heavy-duty fleets faster than its grid can add capacity. A single megawatt charger draws more power than 600 homes. The Carson hub pairs heavy-duty EV charging with on-site battery storage that shaves peak demand without slowing truck movement. E360 is the data behind it.

Sanalife's E360 system integrates all major on-site devices and provides power data at one-minute intervals from the heavy-duty EV chargers, the battery storage system, the medium-voltage switchgear, and the supporting transformers. That's up to 100X more granular than the cadence typical of utility metering.

"Megawatt charging will define commercial freight for the next decade," said Ashish Chona, Chief Commercial Officer at Sanalife Energy. "The operators running those sites either see every kilowatt in real time, or they are guessing at their peak bills. Carson proves E360 scales to that class of load. The hydrogen refueling stations are next."

The hub serves Class 7 and 8 battery-electric trucks operating along Southern California freight corridors. Burns & McDonnell coordinated the electrical design, and MHX hosts the site and provides the charging and switchgear infrastructure.

Carson is the gold standard. The data and operating strategies developed there are expected to transfer to commercial freight charging hubs across California and to the hydrogen refueling stations that will sit alongside them. Sanalife Energy has built E360 as the energy management platform for what comes next: electrification, hydrogen, and the mixed-fuel sites that bridge them.

Sanalife Energy | https://www.sanalifeenergy.com/

Electric Truck Research and Utilization Center | etruc.org 

PowerBank Corporation (NASDAQ: PBK) (Cboe CA: PBK) (FSE: 103) ("PowerBank" or the "Company"), a leader in independent energy development and asset ownership in North America, is pleased to announce its wholly owned subsidiary Abundant Solar Power Inc. has executed an Operations and Maintenance Services Agreement (the "Agreement") with Honeywell International Inc. (NASDAQ: HON) ("Honeywell" or "HON") to provide operations and maintenance services for a 21 MW portfolio of three projects named SB 13-1, SB 13-2, and SB-14 (the "Projects"). The Projects are built on an industrial brownfield owned by Honeywell, which is regulated by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. The Projects have been moved from Honeywell International Inc. to Honeywell Aerospace Inc., following the planned spinoff of Honeywell Aerospace on June 29, 2026.

The Agreement outlines the roles, responsibilities, and performance standards governing the long-term management of the Projects. It establishes requirements for routine inspection, maintenance, repair, and operational monitoring to ensure the Projects function effectively and in compliance with applicable regulations. The Agreement also defines reporting obligations, cost responsibilities, and coordination protocols between the parties, while setting clear expectations for environmental protection, safety, and system reliability over the term of the Agreement.

PowerBank's President and Chief Operating Officer Andrew van Doorn commented, "Securing the O&M agreement on the Honeywell portfolio is a natural extension of the work our team has been executing from day one. When you develop, permit, build, and commission a project, you know it better than anyone, and that knowledge is exactly what makes for reliable long-term operations. This agreement reflects the strength of our full-cycle platform, and the trust Honeywell has placed in PowerBank to deliver not just megawatts, but lasting performance."

In September 2023, the Company completed the sale of the Projects to Honeywell and entered into an engineering, procurement, and construction ("EPC") agreement to build the Projects through to commercial operation. The Agreement follows the announcement of the successful commissioning of the SB 13-2 project.

The Agreement for the portfolio of Projects with Honeywell demonstrates PowerBank's vertically integrated business model, offering services across development, EPC, and Operations and Maintenance to provide megawatts of power. Having now developed and constructed over 100 megawatts of clean energy projects across North America, with a pipeline exceeding one gigawatt, PowerBank is increasingly well-positioned to serve not only traditional utility and community solar offtakers, but also the rapidly growing demand for reliable, on-site power generation driven by AI compute infrastructure and modular data centers.

PowerBank | www.powerbankcorp.com

New Energy Equity, a wholly owned subsidiary of ALLETE Inc., along with community leaders and Harlem School District officials and students gathered in Machesney Park, IL on June 24, 2026, to celebrate the energization of a new 5.5 MW community solar project.

Operated by New Energy Equity on land owned by the school district, this community solar project will generate 8.3 million kWh of clean energy annually—enough to power 1,002 Illinois homes. Local ComEd customers can also enroll in community solar and receive credits on their electricity bill generated by their share of a community solar project, reducing their electricity costs.

For Harlem School District, the partnership creates meaningful benefits without requiring taxpayer-funded construction costs. By leasing district-owned land and enrolling in community solar as a subscriber to the project, Harlem will receive annual lease payments and utility bill credits for 25 years that help offset energy costs across its 9 schools serving local students.

In addition to the environmental impact, the event also celebrated a new scholarship program funded by New Energy Equity which will award $10,000 annually in scholarships to Harlem School District students for the 25-year life of the solar project, totaling a quarter-million-dollar investment in local students. Four seniors from the Class of 2026 at Harlem High School were recognized at the ceremony for their outstanding academic and athletic achievements.

"We're very proud of this project at New Energy Equity because of all the positive benefits it delivers," said Kyle Marchesseault, VP of Marketing. "It delivers benefits for the school district in the form of lease revenue and electricity bill savings. It benefits four deserving, accomplished students through scholarships. And it provides more energy for the local community at a time of rising electricity demand."

Guest dignitaries at the energization ceremony included State Representative Maurice West II (IL 67th District), Mayor Steve Johnson of the Village of Machesney Park, and Harlem School District Superintendent Dr. Terrell Yarbrough.

"Today we celebrate more than the completion of a project, we celebrate the beginning of a transformative partnership between our school district and New Energy Equity," said Superintendent Yarbrough. "This collaboration represents what can happen when organizations come together with a shared vision for the future. It is a partnership that will have a lasting impact, not only on our schools but also on our students, our community, and future generations."

The event concluded with a ceremonial switch flip to signify the official activation of this community solar project.

New Energy Equity | https://www.newenergyequity.com/

Farmblox announced the launch of its COP-R-LOCK security platform for the electric vehicle charging industry, bringing real-time theft detection and remote monitoring technology to charging infrastructure increasingly targeted by copper thieves across the United States.

Originally developed to help farmers combat rising agricultural crime, COP-R-LOCK leverages Farmblox's field-proven sensor network to detect suspicious activity and instantly alert operators, even in remote locations with limited connectivity. Following strong adoption in agriculture, the platform increased protected areas by more than 2,200% between Q3 2025 and Q1 2026, while COP-R-LOCK deployments grew by more than 300,000% in just six months across operations nationwide.

The COP-R-LOCK system uses Farmblox's remote automation and monitoring platform to track infrastructure activity in real time. If cable tampering, enclosure breaches, or suspicious activity are detected, an alarm sounds on-site and operators receive immediate alerts through Farmblox's mobile and desktop app, enabling rapid response.

The launch comes as copper theft emerges as a growing challenge for EV charging operators. Across California and other states, thieves are increasingly targeting charging cables for the copper inside, leaving stations unusable and creating costly repairs for network operators. Industry reports indicate that thieves often recover only a small amount of scrap copper from each cable, while operators can face repair costs exceeding $8,000 per charger, not including lost revenue and customer frustration while stations remain offline.

The challenge has become particularly visible in California, where charging stations throughout the Los Angeles area have experienced repeated cable theft incidents. In many cases, drivers arrive expecting to charge their vehicles only to find chargers disabled, creating disruptions for both EV owners and charging network operators. As EV infrastructure expands nationwide, protecting charging assets has become increasingly critical to maintaining reliability and consumer confidence.

Copper's increasing market value – up 49% in just 18 months – combined with the rapid growth of charging infrastructure nationwide, has made EV charging sites an attractive target for theft. Many charging locations operate unattended around the clock, making it difficult for operators to identify incidents until significant damage has already occurred.

The company developed COP-R-LOCK in collaboration with crime expert Bobby Rader, who has spent more than 15 years investigating infrastructure and rural infrastructure crime.

"Copper theft is no longer just a problem for farms and industrial facilities. It's becoming a real threat to the reliability of EV charging infrastructure," said Nathan Rosenberg, CEO and Co-Founder of Farmblox. "The same challenges we saw in agriculture exist in EV charging networks: remote assets, limited oversight, and the potential for enormous secondary losses from a single theft event. Our goal is to give operators real-time visibility and immediate alerts so they can stop incidents as chargers go offline and drivers are impacted."

Farmblox | https://www.farmblox.com/